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Thursday, 28 October 2010

Cropping

Exercise - 3 photographs

The object of this exercise is to review 3 of my own images and suggest an alternative image by cropping the photograph and give my reasoning behind the selected crop.

All three images were taken with with my Canon 400d and 18-55mm kit lens. This first image was taken at Tentsmuir Forest in Fife. These fungi were perfectly formed and growing from a tree stump. The whole group was no larger than a 10p piece so ideally I would have liked a macro lens to get in closer. This is the original image taken at f/5.6, ISO 400 at 1/60th sec.

Original image

The suggested crop indicated would remove the areas in the image which are overly bright and distracting. These are the brightest white areas at the left of the fungi and the extreme upper right corner which is overexposed. The crop also places the fungi centrally within the frame and the proportion taken up by the tree stump in the lower right corner is mirrored by the size of the empty space in the opposite upper left corner.

Suggested crop.

Final image.

This second image was taken at York Railway Museum. In this instance it was not possible to get any closer to the engine as there was a 4ft perspex screen and floodlights protecting the exhibit. The original shot was taken at f/5, ISO 400 at 1/5th sec. Ideally an aperture of f/11 or above would have been better but this would have led to a longer exposure time and the shot had to be taken hand held.

Original image.

Possible crop.

The final image cropped and rotated. The image that I would have liked to have taken in camera had it not been for the physical barriers.

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Final image.

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This third image was﻿ taken on a holiday in Cyprus. The image shows a local farmer and his goat herd who were some distance away from the road where we were travelling. Taken at aperture f/16 and speed 1/500 sec. This image is similar to the example image given in the teaching notes.

Original image.

Possible crop.

Cropped image.

The image was cropped to remove the sky which lacks any detail and the foreground which was cluttered and distracting. This crop definitely makes the image more interesting and makes the goat herd the obvious subject of the image. Before the crop it was just an image of a scene which included goats, trees, sky and field.

These are only 3 images that I looked at regarding this exercise but I had several more in my picture files which would benefit from the same treatment. Sometimes there are good reasons why an image is not framed correctly "in camera" as in the second image due to the physical obstructions but more time spent studying a scene before taking the picture can't hurt.

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About Me

I live in St Andrews, Scotland and am studying "The Art of Photography" with the Open College of the Arts. Its many years since I did any form of formal studying so here I am jumping in at the deep end.